


the distance between point A and point B

by jiyuuhonpou



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, drunken crying at one point, mentions of other characters too, more like established AoKi and pre-KagaKuro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1781881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jiyuuhonpou/pseuds/jiyuuhonpou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine invites Kagami to meet his boyfriend, and it all goes downhill from there, really.  //  An AU where Seirin High School doesn't exist, Aomine and Kagami attend the same sport science university, and Kise and Kuroko attend the same arts college.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. every time that a stranger calls my name

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from "Making Love to the Camera" by The Starting Line.  
> I don't own KnB, I'm just playing in Makki-sensei's sandbox.

“I want you to meet my boyfriend,” Aomine says as Kagami violently chokes on the large swig of Pocari Sweat he just drank.  The two of them had just finished a round of street ball and normally, they would shoot the shit about basketball-related topics in between games.  To say Aomine just blindsided Kagami with his comment would be an understatement.

At any rate, it takes several minutes of coughing and Aomine pounding Kagami on the back for Kagami to find his voice again.  “Your boyfriend?”

Aomine stiffens and narrows his eyes at Kagami’s response. “Do you have a problem with me having a boyfriend?”

“No, I’m just surprised someone likes you enough to voluntarily be in a relationship with you,” Kagami replies immediately, which earns him a punch in the shoulder and a smirk from Aomine. “But seriously, what’s with you all of a sudden?  I thought you were single.  The seniors are always on your case whenever your fans show up to our games.”

“It’s none of their damn business. I don’t need to broadcast my damn love life to everyone anyway,” Aomine mutters crossly, but Kagami understands what he’s really implying.  Aomine’s skills on the court are nothing short of breathtaking to watch, but that and his less-than-sparkling personality have earned Aomine more than a few enemies over the past two years, even on their own team.  While Kagami likes all of their teammates, he’s not naive enough to believe that all of them would be so accepting of Aomine’s sexual orientation.

 _Although now that I think about it, the seniors **are**  pretty hung up on trying to figure out everyone’s love life_, Kagami thinks as he remembers the countless times teammates would ask if Aomine was seeing anyone, and Aomine shrugging it off and changing the subject.  At the time, Kagami figured that Aomine felt the same way he did about relationships (namely, that they just got in the way of playing basketball) and didn’t really question it, but now Aomine’s actions make more sense.

“Anyway, he keeps going on about how he wants to meet you, so come to the Benny’s near Minami-shinjuku Station tomorrow at noon,” Aomine says, glaring at Kagami defiantly.

“He wants to meet me? Why?”

Aomine reaches over to pick up the basketball near his feet and starts to dribble it, not looking at Kagami. “He thinks I made you up.”

Kagami falls off the bench laughing, clutching his sides. “He thinks you made me up?  Meaning he thinks you don’t have any friends?”

“It’s not that, dumbass! He used to play basketball in high school too, so sometimes I bring you up when I talk about practice and shit.  He’s usually busy with work so he can’t come to our games, though.”

“I’m flattered that you talk about me to your boyfriend,” Kagami deadpans.

Aomine rolls his eyes.  “Yeah, I tell him all about how I kick your ass both on and off the court. So are you going or not?”

“Sure,” Kagami shrugs as he gets up off the ground to sit back on the bench. “I need to see if this boyfriend of yours is a figment of your imagination anyway.”

Aomine shoves Kagami off the bench as Kagami starts laughing again, and throws the basketball at him.  “The only thing funny here is your game, Bakagami! You and me, one more round!”

Kagami tosses the ball right back to Aomine as he gets up from the asphalt and dusts himself off. “You’re on, Ahomine!”

 

* * *

 

Kagami arrives at the family restaurant the next day shortly after noon, figuring that Aomine would stride in thirty minutes late like he usually did during practices or team meetings.  He’s surprised, however, when he spots the back of a blue-haired head at a booth near the back corner of the restaurant, so he waves off the hostess and makes his way towards the booth.

Sure enough, Aomine is in the booth playing with his cell phone, a cup of steaming hot black coffee sitting untouched in front of him.  “You’re late,” he says, not looking up from his cell phone.

“You’re early,” Kagami replies as he slides into the seat opposite Aomine. “So where’s this so-called boyfriend of yours?”

“He’s running a little late too – said he just finished his job so he should be here in a couple of minutes though.” Aomine snaps his phone shut and glances at Kagami.  “Oh, and his roommate’s coming too.”

“Roommate?”

“Yeah, he’s my best friend. The three of us have known each other since middle school, and they go to the same university now.”

“Huh,” Kagami mutters noncommittally as he thumbs through the menu, mentally listing all the things he plans to order.

“We’re in different departments though.  Kise-kun is a fashion design major and I’m studying photography,” a third voice says next to Kagami.

Kagami drops the menu and nearly jumps out of his seat in shock. “How long have you been sitting there?!” he shouts, back against the wall as he faces the unfamiliar person seated calmly beside him.

“I arrived right after you did,” says the stranger, looking up at him with round, sky-blue eyes.  He’s shorter than Kagami, and his pale complexion and slim build only emphasize his lack of presence.

 _Is this Aomine’s boyfriend?_  Kagami thinks to himself as he looks away, suddenly and inexplicably flustered.  _He doesn’t really look like Aomine’s type… then again, what the hell do I know about Aomine’s taste in guys? Up until yesterday I figured he was only interested in chicks with giant tits!_

Aomine, however, doesn’t seem fazed at all.  “Oh, Tetsu, you’re here. I thought you were coming with Kise?”

The stranger— _Tetsu, was it?_ —nods his head at Aomine in greeting. “Hello, Aomine-kun. Kise-kun emailed me earlier saying I should go on ahead without him and that he would just take a cab straight from the studio.  I’m assuming this is your rumored friend from college?” he inquires while turning to face Kagami again.

“Uh, yeah, that would be me, I guess. Taiga Kagami,” Kagami says as he bows his head quickly.

“I’m Tetsuya Kuroko.  It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Kagami-kun. Aomine-kun’s mentioned you a couple of times, but Kise-kun and I weren’t sure if you were a real person.”

“Oi, Tetsu, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!” Aomine yells as he takes a swipe at Kuroko’s head.  Kuroko dodges Aomine’s hand with an ease that speaks of years of practice.

“Aomine hasn’t said anything about you to me until yesterday, and even then I didn’t believe him when he said there was someone that was actually willing to date him,” Kagami chuckles.

Kuroko and Aomine both stare at Kagami, bemused.  “Huh? We’re not—“ Aomine starts to say, but is interrupted by a loud, cheerful voice.

“Aominecchi!! Kurokocchi! I’m sorry I’m late! The photo shoot ran longer than I thought~!” The new arrival slides into the seat next to Aomine, panting lightly. He’s only a little bit shorter than Aomine, about the same height as Kagami, and even though he had probably run over from wherever he came from, not a single blond hair looks out of place on his head.  The new guy is wearing a stylishly coordinated outfit that looked like he had just stepped out of a designer storefront window showcase, and a small silver hoop glistens from his right ear.

 _This person is almost the exact opposite of Kuroko_ , Kagami realizes.   _I guess this must be Kise, the roommate?  Although he looks kind of familiar… have I met him before?_

Kise notices Kagami watching him, and smiles brightly.  “I’m Ryouta Kise.  You must be Aominecchi’s friend, right? I guess he didn’t make you up after all!”

“Of course I didn’t make him up!” Aomine smacks Kise in the head, which elicits a whine from Kise. 

“Aominecchi, you’re so cruel!”

“Taiga Kagami, pleased to meet you… have I seen you somewhere before?”

“Probably. Kise-kun is a part time model.  Right now he’s the face for the billboard on 109Mens,” Kuroko says softly.

Kagami glances over at Kuroko again, but Kuroko’s face is hidden behind the menu that Kagami had dropped earlier, so he looks back at Kise. “No wonder you look so familiar! That billboard is huge. You must be pretty famous, then.”

“Not really,” Kise laughs. “Modeling’s just something I do on the side.  I’m more interested in fashion design.”

“Oh, right. Kuroko mentioned earlier that you were majoring in fashion…”

“You got it! Kurokocchi and I go to the same school, although we have different classes… after not going to the same high school, you’d think we’d at least get a class together in college but we haven’t had a single class together in the past five semesters, can you believe it?!”

“Of course not,” Kuroko interjects as he closes the menu and slides it back towards Kagami, “I wake up early for course enroll just to make sure we never have any cores or electives together.”

“Cold! Kurokocchi, you’re so cold! Even though you and Aominecchi went to Touou together…!”

“Touou…?” Kagami asks as he takes the menu from the table again.

“Touou Academy,” Aomine states as he takes a sip of his neglected coffee.  “The three of us went to the same middle school, but Tetsu and I went to Touou Academy while Kise went to Kaijou High instead.”

“Now that you mention it, didn’t you say Kagamicchi played basketball in high school, too? I don’t remember going up against him in any games…” Kise says thoughtfully.

“Kagamicchi…?” Kagami repeats, dumbfounded.

“Kise-kun adds –cchi to the names of people he acknowledges,” Kuroko supplies helpfully.

“Uh, right…” Kagami shrugs. “Technically I’ve been playing basketball since elementary school, but I spent most of elementary school and middle school in America because my old man had to go there for work. I didn’t come back to Japan until about third year of middle school, and I went to Tokyo International Academy for middle and high school, so we only competed against other international schools.”

“TIA? You must be pretty smart, Kagamicchi!”

“Don’t be fooled, there’s a reason why he’s called Bakagami,” Aomine scoffs. “His grades are just as bad as mine.”

“Shut up, Ahomine,” Kagami grumbles as Kise lets out a bark of laughter.  “Anyway, you mentioned you played basketball in high school?”

“That’s right! Aominecchi, Kurokocchi and I were starting members on the same basketball team in middle school, and we won the championships three years in a row! They used to call our team the Generation of Miracles, you know!” Kise sighs fondly.  “But then Kurokocchi quit after middle school and the rest of us ended up in different high schools, and our college doesn’t have a proper basketball team, so I don’t play nearly as much as I used to…”

“You quit basketball in middle school?” Kagami asks Kuroko.

Kuroko gives him a tiny, sad, smile and Kagami instantly regrets opening his mouth.  “I still love basketball even now, but there were a lot of reasons why I quit in middle school.  Mainly, I wasn’t talented like Aomine-kun or Kise-kun.  My shooting and dribbling skills are mediocre at best.”

“That’s not entirely true, Kurokocchi! Your passing skills were amazing! Even now I’ve never seen anything like it!” Kise pouts.

“Yeah, Tetsu’s an expert at passing.  When he’s on your side, the ball just kind of floats into your hand at exactly the right time,” Aomine agrees.

Kagami’s interest is now fully piqued – he could definitely imagine Kise being an athlete in high school, but there’s no way the practically invisible guy sitting next to him could have been a starting member for a championship team.  If Kuroko’s passing skills were so good that even Aomine acknowledged it, then that just made Kagami want to confirm it with his own eyes even more.  “I’d like to see that. We should play sometime, two on two.”

“Really?” Kise bounces up and down in his seat, eyes brimming with excitement.  “I’d like to see Kagamicchi play too! Aominecchi mentions you whenever he talks about playing, so it must mean you’re pretty good!”

“He’s not nearly on the same level as me, he’s just ok,” Aomine huffs, put out.  “His only redeeming point is that he can jump high like a monkey.”

“If someone as self-absorbed as Aomine-kun says that, then it must mean you’re quite talented, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko states calmly.

“Oi, Tetsu!” Aomine growls, but Kagami intervenes before Aomine can make another swing at Kuroko.

“There’s a street court near my apartment complex that Aomine and I usually go to.  If the two of you are free next Saturday…”

Kise’s face falls slightly. “I might have work that weekend…”

“It doesn’t have to be next weekend, it can be anytime,” Aomine shrugs.  “Although it’s probably not fair if Kagami and I go against you and Tetsu.”

“I don’t mind teaming up with Kagami-kun,” Kuroko says immediately.

“Huh? Wouldn’t you rather be with Aomine? Since, you know…?” Kagami trails off, surprised at Kuroko’s sudden declaration.  He’s flattered that Kuroko wants to team up with him, but isn’t quite sure how to discreetly suggest that Aomine would probably want to side with his boyfriend instead of his boyfriend’s roommate.

Kuroko tilts his head to the side somewhat as he blinks up at Kagami. “I think Kise-kun would rather team up with Aomine-kun. It’s been a while since they’ve played on the same team. Isn’t that right, Kise-kun?”

“Kurokocchi, you’re embarrassing me!” Kise blushes as he clutches onto Aomine’s arm.

“Just don’t get too lovey-dovey on the court,” Kuroko says, the slightest hint of exasperation in his otherwise toneless voice.

“Lovey…dovey…?” Now Kagami’s  _really_  confused.

Kise drops Aomine’s arm immediately and looks at Aomine, abashed.  “I thought you said you told Kagamicchi…?”

“I did!” Aomine exclaims, rounding on Kagami.  “I told you yesterday!”

“He did, he did!” Kagami agrees quickly, holding his hands up.  Kise’s dejected face is a complete 180 from the bubbly expressions he had moments before, and the look doesn’t suit him at all.  “I just thought Aomine was dating Kuroko!”

Three utterly bewildered faces gawk at Kagami as an uncomfortable silence settles over the table.

Kagami silently curses himself and tries to quickly think up of an appropriate excuse or apology, but before he can open his mouth, Kise bursts into peals of laughter.  Aomine’s confused face morphs into one of part disgust and part annoyance, and Kuroko sighs in resignation as he defaults back to an unreadable expression.

“Kagami-kun, I think you must be mistaken.  Kise-kun and Aomine-kun have been in a relationship since senior year of high school.  Aomine-kun and I are just friends.”

“Wow, you’re really a Bakagami,” Aomine groans as he places his palm on his forehead, “Why would I date Tetsu? He’s totally not my type.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know your taste in guys?  All you ever talked about before was Mai Horikita this, Mai Horikita that! I didn’t even know you were dating anyone until yesterday! Anyway, you could have pointed out which person you were dating earlier!” Kagami yells, all too aware that his face must be bright pink from embarrassment now.

“You’re still obsessed with that gravure model, Aomine-kun? This is why I’d never date you. Really, Kise-kun and Kagami-kun are wasted on someone like you.”

“Shut up, Tetsu! And stop laughing, Kise!” Aomine bellows at Kise as the blond hunches over and shakes with barely-suppressed laughter.

“Um, excuse me, are you ready to place your order?”  A waitress impatiently stands near the edge of the table, and it’s then that they notice everyone in the restaurant is staring at their table.  The four young men quiet down immediately and while Kise and Kagami look appropriately contrite, Kuroko remains expressionless and Aomine just scowls.  Kise orders a royal milk bubble tea, Kuroko orders a small vanilla ice cream, Aomine orders some crab croquettes and Kagami orders two Hamburg steak sets.  They talk mostly about basketball for the rest of the meal, and Kagami exchanges email addresses with Kuroko and Kise at the end before they go their separate ways.


	2. if what goes on here doesn't stay in this room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami has three different conversations that all have the same outcome.

Kagami starts to regret exchanging email addresses with Kise almost immediately after the meeting at Benny’s. It’s not that he doesn’t like conversing with Kise – it’s pretty obvious that Kise genuinely loves basketball almost as much as Kagami does, and unlike Aomine, Kise is friendly and easy to talk to—it’s that Kise just doesn’t know when to shut up. Kise will send as many as 10 emails each day in random intervals, about all sorts of nonsense, like pictures of what Kise’s about to eat, or lyrics from the new single of a band that a fellow model recommended, or requests for Kagami to take lots of pictures of Aomine during practice.

 _Usually he sends twice that many; he must be holding back since he doesn’t know you too well yet. Just ignore them and he’ll get the hint eventually_ , Kuroko replies after Kagami sends him an email asking if Kise is always like that. Although Kuroko never initiates an email conversation, he’s generally quick to respond to Kagami, and unlike Kise’s emails, Kuroko’s replies are brief, to the point, and don’t look like an emoticon dictionary vomited all over them.

Nevertheless, it takes about two weeks and several hundred emails before the four of them are all free to play street basketball. They meet up at the street court that Aomine and Kagami usually play on a Tuesday afternoon, when they don’t have classes or practice or work getting in the way.  They start with a game of two-on-two, Aomine and Kise versus Kuroko and Kagami. Aomine suggests they play half-court for now; Kagami shoots him a questioning look at first, but once they start playing it’s obvious Aomine meant it as a handicap for Kuroko. Aomine doesn’t hold back and Kise is surprisingly skilled for someone who supposedly quit playing competitively two years ago, but Kuroko can barely keep up, and after three games in a row Kagami has to drag Kuroko to the bench so Kuroko can catch his breath.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you sucked at shooting or dribbling,” Kagami says as he tosses a small towel at Kuroko’s head before sitting down on the bench next to him.  Aomine and Kise have already started playing one-on-one against each other, so Kagami figures he’ll wait until they finish this round before joining in again.

“I don’t like telling jokes or lies,” Kuroko pants, looking up at Kagami from under the towel while clutching his knees in an attempt to steady his breathing. “But you’re really something else, Kagami-kun. Those were some impressive jump shots.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Kagami’s used to getting praised for his slam dunks, but for some reason he feels a little embarrassed to hear it from Kuroko. “Aomine and Kise are right, though. Those passes were amazing, I’ll give you that.”

“I suppose so,” Kuroko murmurs, watching Kise shoot a particularly beautiful floater past Aomine and straight into the basket.

The lapse of silence that follows feels a little stifling to Kagami, so he changes the subject.  “So… you’re a photography major?”

“That’s correct. I’ve liked people-watching since I was younger, and the feeling of successfully capturing the perfect shot is quite addictive.  I was at last year’s Inter College, you know.  It was a really good game.”

Kagami blinks at the sudden shift in topic, but chooses not to comment on it.  “You were there? Aomine didn’t say anything about it…”

“I didn’t tell him I was there until much later.  One of the graduate students in our department freelances for the local newspaper, so I volunteered to cover the game in exchange for a press pass.”

“Sorry, I don’t remember seeing you at all…” Kagami can remember every single detail from that championship game, right down to the feel of the cool metal rim smacking against his wrist when he made the last dunk, but anything after the sound of the fourth-quarter buzzer was a blur to him. “But that’s cool that you were there and you took pictures.  Do you do that a lot?”

“If you mean photojournalism, then no, that was my first time doing it professionally.  But I like taking pictures of things that are interesting to me, and I like basketball, so I enjoyed it.”

“You should become a sports photographer.  Then you could go to basketball games for free, get the best view and take as many pictures as you want.”

“That’s a really simplistic way of looking at things. I can see why Aomine-kun gets along with you, Kagami-kun.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kagami yells as he turns to look at Kuroko, but Kuroko’s gaze is still fixated on the court.

“It looks like Aomine-kun’s won.  Shall we join them?”

 _I can’t keep up with this guy’s train of thought at all; he’s all over the place._   “Finally. That lasted longer than I thought.”

“Just because Kise-kun doesn't play basketball competitively anymore doesn't mean he's forgotten how to play. He was one of the Generation of Miracles, too.  With his Perfect Copy, I'm sure he would give you a run for your money, even now."

"Ha! That sounds like a challenge to me!" Kagami jumps up off the bench, brimming with excitement, and starts to jog over to the other side of the court where Kise and Aomine are standing.  "Oi, Kise! One-on-one, you and me!"

"Kagami-kun."

He turns around to see Kuroko looking straight at him, eyes shining with an emotion that Kagami can't quite place.  It's different from the normally expressionless countenance that Kuroko's worn so far, so much so that Kagami actually stops in his tracks and turns around to fully face him.

"Would you mind if I took some pictures of you next time, Kagami-kun?"

"Idiot," Kagami scoffs, “If you’ve got time to be snapping pictures, then wouldn’t you rather spend it playing instead?"

For a moment Kagami thinks he can see the flicker of a smile on his face, but Kuroko defaults back to his usual neutral expression before Kagami can register it.   “I suppose so,” he says softly.

It isn’t until much later, while Kagami walks back to his apartment alone under the night sky after seeing the other three off at the subway station, when he realizes he'd just naturally assumed he would play basketball with Kuroko again.

 

* * *

 

“Are you free tonight,” Aomine says, in a tone that isn’t really asking a question, in the locker room after practice. They’ve just finished a hellish training regime dreamed up by the team manager (who reminds Kagami a little bit of his old basketball instructor back in the States, minus the penchant for kissing every woman and child in sight) so the groans of pain from their fellow teammates are particularly loud today, but Aomine keeps his voice low so as not to be overheard.

Kagami narrows his eyes suspiciously. Aomine’s been lashing out at everyone and everything all day, enough that their coach, who usually possesses a level of patience that borders on transcendence, had made Aomine do extra laps in addition to practice.  If Aomine’s looking to start a fight tonight, Kagami’s not going to back down, but that small part of him that feels vaguely responsible for the well-being of the team nags him to at least find out what’s got Aomine so riled up.  “Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“Let’s grab some drinks.  I know a good izakaya we can hit up that’s not too far from here.”

Kagami’s not really much of a drinker, and the forced casualness in Aomine’s tone isn’t fooling anyone. Still, Kagami isn’t one to say no to the prospect of food. “Okay, but you’re paying.”

“Hell no! Do you even know how much you eat?! If I pay for you, I’ll be broke for the rest of the year!”

“Fine, fine, just pay for half of it, then. I don’t have morning classes tomorrow anyway.”

Aomine looks like he wants to argue for a second, but his face quickly crumples in defeat. “Whatever. Just change already and meet me outside when you’re done,” he grumbles as he slams his locker shut and heads for the exit.

It turns out that Aomine’s  _not too far from here_  really means  _a thirty-minute subway ride from campus_ , but thankfully it’s towards the tail end of rush hour so the train ride isn’t too terrible.  Aomine’s mood improves considerably when they arrive at the izakaya; the place is a step above the hole-in-the-wall dive bars that Kagami’s used to visiting when the team goes out for drinks, with stylish wooden surfaces, minimalist decor, and salarymen in suits seated at the bar instead of cheap plastic, dingy lighting, and young drunk college students clamoring to get the bartender's attention.

Kagami raises a forked eyebrow when the hostess smiles at Aomine and leads the two of them past the bustling front bar and dining area to a small Japanese-style private room in the back, complete with a low table, tatami flooring, and shoji doors.  A server arrives with hot hand towels shortly after Aomine and Kagami are seated.  Aomine orders two glasses of shochu straight, while Kagami tells the server he’d like a medium draft Asahi Super Dry and one of every appetizer on the menu, please.

Aomine glares at Kagami as the server steps out of the room and slides the shoji doors shut. “You’re really milking this, aren’t you, asshole.”

“Hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The unstoppable Daiki Aomine, taking me out for drinks in a private room and offering to pay for half of whatever I order? How can I pass this up?” Kagami laughs as Aomine continues to scowl at him. “No, but seriously, what’s up with you today? You’ve been acting even more pissy than normal.”

Aomine opens his mouth, then closes it quickly and looks away. “It’s nothing. This was a fucking dumb idea anyway. What the hell was I thinking?”

“Thinking? You’re capable of thought? I highly doubt that.”

Aomine punches Kagami in the shoulder, but his anger seems to have subsided a little bit. “Whatever, let’s just get wasted already,” he says as the waitress returns with their drinks and food. Kagami stuffs his cheeks with food immediately, while Aomine picks at a bowl of edamame and gulps down his shochu like it was water.

The two sit in companionable silence, Kagami occupying himself with food and Aomine ordering more drinks, until Aomine finishes his fifth round of shochu and slumps his head against the table. “I think Kise’s cheating on me,” he moans without looking up.

 _Well, that explains why we didn’t just go somewhere near campus,_  thinks Kagami. Relationships have never been Kagami’s forte, but he’s pretty sure Kise wouldn’t constantly be emailing Kagami for pictures of Aomine if he weren’t interested in Aomine. “Don’t be a dumbass. Kise likes you a lot.”

“You don’t understand!” Aomine sits up straight, almost knocking down the stack of Kagami’s empty plates in the process. “Just hear me out, okay? I went to his apartment yesterday, right? Tetsu’s been staying late at campus this semester on weekdays because he’s working on his portfolio and they have one of those fancy studios with a darkroom and shit. So I figured Tetsu wouldn’t be there and I could get some, you know?”

“Er, right…” Kagami nods uneasily as he takes a sip of his beer. He’s only just started his second glass, but judging from the current direction of this conversation, it’s going to be a long night and he might as well start catching up to Aomine on the alcohol intake.

“Anyway, I go over to the apartment and Kise’s there with Tetsu, and they’re both sitting in the living room with a bunch of pictures spread out on the table. Do you know what those pictures were?”

“No?”

“They were all pictures of Kise!”

Kagami rolls his eyes. “You  _do_  know that when Kise models, it means that people take pictures of him, right?”

“He was in briefs!”

“Okay…?”

“Tetsu, that asshole! I’m gonna kill him!” Aomine pounds a fist onto the low table, and Kagami deftly saves one of the empty shochu glasses from rolling onto the floor.

“Wait,  _what_? What does Kuroko have to do with this?”

“Bakagami! Kise looked really fuckable in them, you know? He was using his bedroom eyes and everything!”

“Uh…”

“Kise’s been modeling since high school, so I thought I’ve seen everything, but the poses in those photos were, like, straight out of a gravure magazine! No, not even, like… like out of a porno or something! He was practically eye-fucking the camera! Hell, I got a little hard just looking at those pictures!”

Kagami clears his throat, not really sure if he should be laughing or crying at this point. He chooses to drain the rest of his beer instead.

“Did you know Kise used to have a thing for Tetsu in high school? He denies it now, but I know he did. I bet they’re doing each other as we speak. Tetsu’s probably balls-deep in Kise right now and taking pictures of it for his portfolio.” Aomine spits out the word  _portfolio_  like it was a rotten lemon, and makes an appropriate face to match.

Kagami, meanwhile, spits out a mouthful of beer, suddenly grateful that Aomine had enough common sense to reserve a private room in advance. “Excuse me?”

“Tetsu’s gay too,” Aomine declares, haphazardly tossing several napkins in the direction of where Kagami just spewed his beer. The napkins scatter all over the floor and start to soak up the liquid. “I didn’t start going out with Kise until near the end of our senior year of high school, but Tetsu and Kise were out of the closet way before that. Hell, I bet they were each other’s firsts, too.” Aomine puts his head down on the table again and starts to cry.

“Um, it’ll… be okay… I guess…” Kagami trails off as he pats Aomine on the shoulder awkwardly.  _This is way too much information to take in all at once, and to top it all off Aomine is actually **crying**? Did I just step into an alternate dimension where I dole out relationship advice to young gay Japanese men stuck in soap opera love triangles?_  “Besides, you don’t have any proof that Kise and Kuroko are sleeping together, just some… pictures that you saw…”

“You didn’t see those pictures, Bakagami!” Aomine grabs a skewer of yakitori from one of Kagami’s plates and starts chewing on it pitifully.

“You’re hopeless. You could just call them out on the pictures if it bothers you so much, you know?” Kagami sighs as he pulls his cell phone out from his pocket and starts typing a message to Kuroko.  In the few weeks following their first basketball game together, Kagami’s sort of become texting friends with Kuroko to the point where Kuroko will email him randomly, so he doesn’t feel too bad about sending the following message this late on a weeknight:  
 _out drinking w/Aomine right now – hes bitchin that ur pics of Kise r 2 sexy_

Kagami gets a reply from Kuroko seconds later:  
 _Please tell Aomine-kun to stop watching so much pornography and to get his mind out of the gutter._

Kagami waves his cell phone screen at Aomine. “See? You’re making a big deal out of nothing.” Unfortunately, the message just makes Aomine sob even harder.

Kagami sighs again in complete defeat. “All right, I think you’ve had enough alcohol for tonight. Come on, get up, we’re going home,” he grumbles as he attempts to pull a bawling Aomine to his feet. Kagami ends up carrying Aomine on his back out of the restaurant after paying the tab himself, and swears that he’ll never agree to another drinking session with Aomine again.

 

* * *

 

“Wow, I feel really loved!”

“Who cares about that?! Do you know how embarrassing it was to carry his weepy ass back to his apartment? He kept sobbing and saying your name over and over! He’s lucky I didn’t just leave him in front of his doorstep!” Kagami yells into his cell phone.  It’s not even 9AM yet, but he’d just finished his morning run and opened the door of his apartment when Kise calls him to apparently gossip about last night’s events.

“I didn’t know Aominecchi was a drunk crier, though! He doesn’t usually get drunk that easily, so he must have drank quite a bit this time. Maybe if I get him drunk next time, he’ll cry for me again?”

“Just go jump off a cliff together already, the both of you!”

“Hey, Kurokocchi, did you hear about Aominecchi last night?” Kise’s voice becomes muffled, so Kagami assumes Kise’s no longer talking into the receiver anymore. He hears some mumbling and more of Kise’s laughing for a few moments before Kise returns to the phone. “Kurokocchi said you should have just dumped him at one of the trash pickup points for the rest of the night!”

“I couldn’t do that. They charge extra to pick up oversized trash,” Kagami snickers. He can hear Kise’s muffled chuckles as Kise relays his reply to Kuroko, and the laughter becomes clearer once Kise faces the receiver again.  “But you know, Aomine kept going on and on about some pictures Kuroko took of you in your underwear the whole night…”

“Oh, those? That’s nothing; it’s the men’s underwear line I’m designing for one of my classes. I figure I’d save time if I modeled them myself and asked Kurokocchi to photograph them for me, but they came out better than I expected, if I do say so myself!”

“A little too good, if you ask Aomine. He thinks you’re cheating on him with Kuroko.”

Kagami hears the phone clatter to the ground; he’s sure Kise is currently rolling around in a hysteric fit.  _Yeah, Kise’s definitely not cheating and Aomine’s definitely an idiot._

“I’ve got a couple more pieces left for Kurokocchi to photograph, so I’ll make sure these make him cry for sure!”

“If you do that, Aomine-kun will definitely make you cry in bed,” Kuroko’s voice is muted but distinct enough for Kagami to understand what he’s saying, which means he must be closer to the phone than before. Kagami feels his entire face flush as he shakes his head to snap himself out of it.

“All the more reason for me to do my best, then!” Kise declares.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, just keep me out of it,” Kagami sighs. “I don’t want to take care of his crybaby drunk ass anymore.”

“Sure, sure, thanks for your hard work! Ah, Kurokocchi wants to talk to you for a minute, is that okay?”

Kagami ignores the sudden dry feeling in his mouth. “Fine, I guess?”

“Good morning, Kagami-kun, this is Kuroko speaking,” Kuroko’s voice is clear this time, meaning he must be speaking directly into the phone now.  The pitch of his voice sounds slightly lower too, and it almost feels like Kuroko’s talking directly into Kagami’s ear.

“Hey,” Kagami breathes, drumming his fingertips along his bedside table in an effort to calm down the sudden racing of his heartbeat.

“If you doubt Kise-kun’s fidelity, please rest assured that I am not currently sleeping with Kise-kun.”

“I wasn’t implying that at all, I swear! That was just Ahomine being his usual dumbass self, I don’t care who you sleep with! ” The words tumble out of Kagami’s mouth before he can stop them, and he wants to punch himself in the face right after he realizes what he’s just said.

“Regardless, I’d like to clear up any lingering misconceptions you might have, given that you’ve been completely off the mark about my romantic interests since the first day we’ve met.”

“Uh, I believe you, there’s really no need, I–“

“It just so happens that a portion of my portfolio will be on display in one of the local art galleries next Friday, and I was considering using some of the photos I shot of Kise-kun as part of the exhibition.  If you’re interested, would you like to attend the opening night?”

“W-well, I’m not really interested in seeing half-naked pictures of Kise–” Kagami stammers.

“Don’t worry, there’s a variety of subjects in addition to Kise-kun. And like I said last night, the shots of Kise-kun aren’t nearly as erotic as Aomine-kun makes them out to be; he’s just an eternally horny pervert.”

Kagami has to laugh at that. “Okay, sure, I’ll go. I’d like to see your non-erotic photos myself, and I should be free that Friday.”

“All right, I’ll email you the details.” Kagami hears Kise babbling something in the background, but he can’t make out what Kise is saying. There’s some rustling as Kuroko covers the receiver to mutter something incomprehensible in response before he speaks into the receiver again. “Would you like to talk to Kise-kun again?”

“Uh, no, that’s fine. Tell him I said good luck with his collection.”

“Of course. Have a nice day, Kagami-kun.”

“You too, Kuroko,” Kagami says before pressing the end call button on his phone. He exhales the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding and slumps against the wall of his bedroom, sliding down to the floor, closing his eyes and idly wondering why he got so worked up talking to Kuroko, of all people, when a thought suddenly pops into his head.

_Is it because of what Aomine said last night, about Kuroko being gay too?_

Kagami rejects that notion immediately.  For example, it’s not like Aomine himself being gay bothers Kagami. He’s pretty sure their friendship (if you could call it that; most days it seems like a grudging partnership) hasn’t changed since Aomine introduced him to Kise.   Aomine might infuriate him with his jackass attitude and laziness sometimes, and Kise’s perpetually sparkly personality might tire him out, but Kagami’s never once had a problem with their relationship.

Although now that he thinks about it, Kagami’s never really been that good with relationships in general.  He’s just started his third year of college, but he can count the number of women he’s been in a relationship with on one hand.  They all played out the same anyway; she’d confess her feelings to him, he’d half-heartedly agree to go out with her either out of curiosity or guilt, and a few weeks later she’d break it off because he’d rather play basketball than go on dates, or he couldn’t make it to parties because he had practice, or he didn't really have anything in common with her.  His college friends have more or less given up inviting him to group dates at this point, and Kagami has essentially resigned himself to forever feeling awkward whenever someone brings up their love life.

He’d asked Himuro about relationships once, when the wounds hadn’t quite fully healed between them but something needed to be said to fill the uncomfortable silences.   Himuro had smiled at him then, and gently reassured Kagami that even if he couldn’t understand it now, what it was like to become so caught up in someone else, he would someday.

 _This sort of thing suits Tatsuya better; he’d know what to say._  Kagami instinctively reaches for the small silver ring hanging from the chain on his neck. Even when he had found out that Himuro was bisexual shortly after their falling out, that didn’t change Kagami’s perception of Himuro; Tatsuya was Tatsuya, the person who introduced him to basketball and one of his closest childhood friends.  ( ** _Not_** _my big brother anymore_ , Kagami mentally reminds himself as he grips the ring a little harder than necessary,  ** _that_** _was the real reason we fought, it had nothing to do with his orientation_.)

But Himuro’s in America for college right now and it's probably not worth trying to set up time to Skype for something that really shouldn't be an issue, so Kagami smacks his cheeks with both hands in an attempt to clear his head.  He’s got a Kinesiology lecture in the afternoon that he still hasn’t done the assigned reading for, and practice right afterward, so he tries to push all thoughts of Kuroko, Aomine, and Kise out of his mind as he goes through today’s to-do list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inter College is shorthand for “All Japan Intercollegiate Basketball Championship”, which is the big college basketball tournament in Japan. Incidentally, it takes place during winter at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in December and is broadcast on television, just like the Winter Cup :)


	3. the beginning of something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami doesn't spit out any drinks and manages to come to a realization of sorts.

When one of the underclassmen comments on Aomine’s absence, the team manager replies that Aomine had emailed her earlier saying he had come down with a debilitating and highly contagious stomach virus so he wouldn’t be able to make it to practice today.  Kagami snorts at the blatant lie, but doesn’t bother to correct her; if she found out that he’d gone drinking with Aomine last night, it might lead to a lot of troublesome questions.  At least he doesn’t have to bother anymore with shooting Aomine an email later on to confirm if Aomine was still alive.

Kagami doesn’t see Aomine until the next day during their only shared class – Sport in Media.  It’s the one lecture Aomine regularly attends (because in his words, “all you do in that class is watch J SPORTS reruns anyway”), but Kagami’s still a little surprised when five minutes before the class is scheduled to start, Aomine plops down into the cushioned auditorium-style seat next to him.

“You told Kise I got shitfaced the other night?”

Kagami shoots an exasperated look at Aomine. “No, I told  _Kuroko_  you got plastered, and  _he_  told Kise.  You were busy salting my yakitori skewers with your tears when I emailed Kuroko, remember? Oh, and now that you mention it, you still owe me 20,000 yen.” Kagami holds his hand out expectantly to Aomine. “Pay up.”

“Are you fucking shitting me?!” Aomine yells as he smacks Kagami’s hand away.

“You can go ask the hostess the next time you see her if you don’t believe me – I’m pretty sure any of the wait staff working that night will remember you if you start bawling in front of them again.”

“Remind me to never take you drinking anywhere ever again,” Aomine sighs as he sinks further down into his seat.

“Hey, compared to you, I’m an awesome drinking buddy.  At least I didn’t leave you passed out on the curb or something like Kuroko suggested I should.”

“And that’s why I never go drinking with Tetsu,” Aomine replies seriously, and it dawns on Kagami that perhaps Kuroko was speaking from experience when he’d suggested that Kagami leave Aomine to sober up at one of the trash collection points.

“Maybe you should just never drink again, period. Or at least, you know,  _not_  get hammered enough to cry over pictures.  Which, by the way, posing for pictures is what Kise does for a living, in case I need to remind you?”

“I wasn’t  _that_  drunk.” Aomine glances around the room furtively and drops the volume of his voice down a bit to make sure no one could eavesdrop. “I‘ve never held Kise’s work against him, ever.  But this is different. If you saw those pictures–”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, I’ll get to see what the big fuss is all about next Friday, and then I can laugh at you for being paranoid,” Kagami yawns as he stretches his arms up above his head and leans back into his seat.

Aomine blinks at Kagami in confusion.  “Next Friday? You mean at Tetsu’s showing?”

“Oh, you’re invited too?”

“Of course Tetsu invited me, dumbass! What I want to know is since when have  _you_  been all buddy-buddy with Tetsu? He never invites anyone to his showings except for me and four other people!”

Kagami opens his mouth to ask what exactly Aomine means by that just as the lecturer walks into the hall and signals for silence.  He shoots one last baleful glare in Aomine’s direction before turning to face the front of the room and pretends to listen to the lecturer, but gives up almost immediately after the lecturer dims the lights and turns on the projector.

Normally Kagami doesn’t have any problems with paying attention during this particular class (because getting credits to scrutinize sports clips is probably the easiest 100 that Kagami will earn in his entire education), but his thoughts keep drifting back to Kuroko, of all people. Kagami hadn't thought too much of it when he was on the phone with Kuroko, but Aomine's revelation about the exclusivity of Kuroko's invite leaves him feeling slightly tingly all over, almost like the feeling he gets when tournament round draws are announced.

 _He just wants to prove Aomine's retarded. There's no weird hidden meaning behind asking me to go see his stuff_ , Kagami reminds himself as he tries to focus on the flickering images on the projection screen, but the prickly sensation doesn't go away.

Kagami and Aomine have practice after lecture, so the two of them head over to the gym together.  Aomine rambles about the video clip they just finished analyzing in class and how the Diamond Dolphins were utterly robbed of victory during the last quarter because the referee couldn’t spot a foul even if it danced around him naked, and Kagami disinterestedly hums his agreement during random intervals in Aomine’s ranting.

“Hey,” Kagami says when Aomine finally finishes listing all the reasons why the Western Conference will never get a trophy at this point if they don’t shape up, “Did Kuroko ever tell you he was at the Inter College this year?”

Aomine gapes at Kagami as if he’s just grown two heads.  “Yeah, a couple of days afterward he told me he was there to take pictures for the local newspaper. What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing… I just thought it was kind of weird that I’ve never seen him before, is all.  Did the newspaper ever end up using his pictures?”

“Wow, you’re super dense, aren’t you? Tetsu’s always been hard to spot ever since middle school; that’s part of why he’s so good at passing.  Kise says that’s what makes him good at candid shots too, so of course the newspaper used his pictures.” Aomine stops and looks at Kagami skeptically.  “Anyway, what’s the big deal?  Not like you to be interested in other people’s business.”

“It’s nothing,” Kagami reiterates, “just curious, is all.” Much as he doesn’t want to admit it, Aomine has a point.  Kagami wasn’t the type of person to pry for particulars about people’s past; now that he thinks about it, it’s probably one of the reasons why he and Aomine got along so well.  After all, he’s only recently been learning details about Aomine’s private life even though they’ve technically been teammates for over two years now.  If Aomine had never told him about Kise, Kagami most likely would have spent the rest of his life thinking that Aomine just wasn’t interested in romance.

But Kuroko was different – there was just something about him that piqued Kagami’s interest, even though he couldn’t quite place what made him so unique.  It wasn’t just his play style, although that was remarkable in its own right.

“If you’re that interested in it,” Aomine says, snapping Kagami back to reality, “there’s probably an article in Coach’s office that you can look at later, so stop spacing out and hurry up before Captain has an aneurysm or something.”

Kagami scowls at Aomine. “You were the one ranting about the Western Conference.  First person to the locker room buys lunch tomorrow?”

Aomine immediately starts sprinting towards the gym without so much as a nod.

“I didn’t say ‘go’ yet, asshole!” Kagami yells as he runs after Aomine.

 

* * *

 

Kagami’s never been to an art gallery before, let alone the opening night of a showing, but he’s fairly sure he can’t get away with wearing his usual jeans and hoodie, so he spends a little over an hour rummaging through his closet trying to figure out what to wear.  At one point he considers emailing Kise for advice, but he’s almost certain that Kise would pick him apart fashion-wise and Aomine would never let him live it down if he ever got wind of it, so Kagami shoots down that idea pretty quickly.

He eventually settles on a burgundy dress shirt, black slacks, and some black dress shoes that happen to be the only pair of shoes he owns that aren’t sneakers.  After some consideration, he rummages through his father's closet and managed to find a plain black tie with the knot loose enough to slip over his head and tighten around his neck without having to tie it from scratch. Better to be overdressed than underdressed.

The gallery isn’t too far from the art college that Kuroko and Kise attend, but it’s located in an industrial area Kagami’s never visited before; once he gets off the appropriate train station, Kagami wanders past several rundown warehouses before finally seeing several people milling around a small, modern-looking building further down the road.  As he gets closer, he recognizes Aomine’s tall form leaning casually against the wall of the building.

“You look a little more decked out than usual today,” Aomine says, his default smirk morphing into a leer once Kagami approaches him.

“What are you, the fashion police?” Kagami grumbles as Aomine laughs at him.  Aomine’s sporting a simple cream-colored v-neck sweater, khakis, and brown loafers – similar to what Aomine usually wears every day when he’s not on the court – so at least Kagami feels marginally better about his fashion decisions.

“Kise’s helping Tetsu and some of their classmates set up, so he’ll catch up with us inside. I told him we’d be at the appetizer table.”

Kagami perks up immediately. “They have food here?”

“Yeah, apparently the gallery owner is some rich old alumni of their school so they hosts showings like this for the students a lot, and every time I’ve gone to one they’ve had an open bar and shit.” Aomine shrugs.

“Open bar? You better be careful. I’m pretty sure Kuroko would be pissed if you burst into tears in the middle of the gallery tonight.”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you? Just make sure you don’t scarf down the entire hors d’oeuvres supply while you’re at it," retorts Aomine while he opens the doors to the gallery.

As soon as they step inside, Kagami has to fight down the sudden urge to turn on his heel and walk right back out.  He’s gotten used to feeling like the odd one out ever since he moved back to Japan (having red hair and a twenty-centimeter height advantage over most people tended to contribute to that) but he sticks out even more like a sore thumb here; every single person in the room is dressed more stylishly than Kagami and exudes the kind of highbrow aura associated with the stereotypical self-absorbed art student.

Aomine looks completely nonplussed as he strolls into the gallery alongside Kagami, however, and nods at a student seated at a nearby folding table marked “Check-in Area”.  Her impassive expression brightens immediately upon recognizing Aomine, and she gestures at the two of them to come over.  “Aomine-kun, it’s nice to see you again! I’m assuming you’re here as Kuroko-kun’s guest?”

“Yeah, it’s just me and this guy,” Aomine jerks a thumb in Kagami’s direction.  “Should be listed as ‘Taiga Kagami’ under Tetsu’s name.”

The young woman rapidly skims through a small pile of papers on the table.  “Yup, it’s right here so the both of you can head right in,” she confirms as she checks off Aomine’s and Kagami’s names from the list. “I haven’t seen Kuroko-kun yet, but Kise-kun is definitely inside already.”

“Thanks,” Kagami says over his shoulder before turning to follow Aomine, who’s already making a beeline for the appetizer table.  Aomine weaves through the groups of students effortlessly, nodding back at several different guests who wave greetings at him along the way, and Kagami does his best to keep up without looking too lost.

The crowd thins out by the time they reach the appetizer table and the bar; Kagami figures that with the exception of Aomine and himself, everyone is actually here to appreciate the artwork, because the plates of cheese, fruit, and hors d'oeuvres are all artfully arranged and practically untouched. The bar is simple but well-stocked: Kagami can see ice buckets with bottles of wine, beer, and soft drinks behind the counter. The bored bartender nods at Aomine and wordlessly starts pouring sparkling wine into two champagne flutes, so Kagami assumes that even the bartender here knows Aomine.

“I guess you must attend this type of thing a lot if you can get in just by face recognition.” Kagami says as Aomine hands him an appetizer plate and some utensils.

“I don’t really give a shit either way about art or whatever, I just come to support Tetsu,” Aomine says, waving around a pair of serving tongs dismissively. “One of my former teammates from Touou goes to the same art college for drawing so sometimes I see him around, but like I said before, Tetsu only ever invites four other people besides me to his showings so all of the staff and classmates here recognize me by now as one of his friends.”

"Do they know you're going out with Kise?" asks Kagami as he piles up his plate with appetizers.

Aomine grabs the two filled champagne flutes from the bar and says thanks to the bartender; she waves him off with a smile and goes back to polishing glasses.  "Not everyone, I guess. It might be bad for Kise's modeling career if people find out he's dating someone, so we're not exactly broadcasting it to everyone we meet if you catch my drift."

Kagami frowns at that; just because he understands what Aomine’s implying doesn’t mean he agrees with it.  "Doesn’t that... bother you or something?"

Aomine stares at Kagami. "...A little?" he replies hesitantly.  "I mean, sometimes I look at him and I'm just like,  _fuck yeah_ , I'm tapping that and I don't give a rat’s ass who knows! And if he decides to drop the modeling stuff and only do fashion design no one’ll give a shit about who he’s boning anyway!  But I’m not going to force him to drop anything he doesn’t want to, and I know he also worries that I might face backlash when I go pro and people find out I'm gay too, so it’s not like I don’t get why we have to keep it under wraps for now." Aomine smugly takes a swig of champagne from one of the glasses and holds the other glass out to Kagami before continuing. "Never thought you of all people would ask me that, though."

"I thought you'd just brush me off like you always do," Kagami replies honestly as he takes the proffered glass and clinks it against Aomine’s own in an obligatory toast. "I mean, I don't know him as long as you have, but it seems like he’s pretty into you..."

"Yeah, Kise and I go way back." Aomine actually  _smiles_  at that, a soft, genuine smile that's so unlike his usual leer that Kagami has to bite back a laugh.  “Tetsu too, I guess, but that’s different,” he adds.

“Are Kuroko’s other guests here right now?” Kagami looks around the room to see if he can spot Kuroko, but there's no sign of pale blue hair anywhere in the crowd.

“Nope. Satsuki usually drops whatever she's doing to come to Tetsu's showings, but she's been in Fukuoka this whole week taking care of family stuff. You've met her before, right?"

Kagami nods; Aomine's busty childhood friend had made quite the impression on the team freshman year when she burst into the men's locker room on the first day of practice, dragging Aomine by the ear and screaming that just because they weren't attending the same college didn't mean that she'd let "Dai-chan" screw up his athletic scholarship and only hope for a stable future by sleeping in and missing practice.  Although Momoi became less of a fixture at games during sophomore year, she'd still attended all the final games and had become somewhat of a "consulting manager" to the team occasionally, providing data analysis on rival schools and offering tips on how to rope Aomine in during his moodier days whenever her busy schedule allowed.

"I don't think you've met any of the other guys though... Midorima’s studying for some crazy biology exam he has next week, last I heard Murasakibara was in Paris for an apprenticeship under a famous pastry chef, and who knows what the hell Akashi’s up to right now. Subjugating anyone stupid enough to dare oppose him or something,” Aomine shrugs.

Kagami coughs at Aomine’s odd choice of words.  “Subjugating…?”

“Akashi was our team captain in middle school,” Aomine shrugs again, as if that was supposed to explain everything.  “Midorima and Murasakibara were the other two starting members on our team, and Satsuki and Tetsu know each other because she went to Teikou and Touou too.  And then there's Kise, who doesn’t need an invite anyway since he’s Tetsu’s classmate.”

“You guys must be pretty close, then, if you still touch base with each other after so long,” Kagami says with a tiny twinge of jealousy.  Kagami wasn’t the best at keeping in touch with people—hell, he was downright terrible with it—and frequently moving around with his family as a kid didn’t make it any easier.  Sure, there was Himuro, but that was different— _Tatsuya was different_ —and even then, they hadn't spoken to each other for a couple of years during their big falling-out.

“Not really…?” Aomine tilts his head to one side skeptically.  “Obviously I’m close to Kise, Tetsu, and Satsuki but I don’t really see the other three that regularly.  The only one that attempts to make an effort is Tetsu, and that’s mostly just because he’s used all of us as subjects at one point or another in his portfolio.”

"Because he likes taking pictures of things that are interesting to him, right?" Kagami muses softly, the image of Kuroko's bright blue eyes burning with intensity flashing across his memory.

Aomine pauses and blinks at Kagami. “How did you know that?”

"Kuroko told me when we first played street ball together," Kagami responds.

"Huh, that's weird," Aomine says as he resumes piling appetizers onto his plate. "Tetsu doesn't really talk about his photography that much to strangers."

"I'm not a stranger. We text each other,” Kagami counters sulkily, and even though it sounds just as lame said out loud as it did in his head, Kagami can't shake off the impulse to disprove Aomine's implication that he didn't have any connection to Kuroko.  “Which reminds me... How come you call Kuroko ‘Tetsu’, anyway? You don’t even call your own boyfriend by his first name.” Kagami takes a sip out of his own champagne glass in an effort to play down the sudden change in topic.

“Tetsu is Tetsu,” replies Aomine, “I’ve known him longer than Kise, and I’ve known Satsuki even longer than the both of them, so it would be weird if I just changed how I call them all of a sudden, right? Besides, ‘Ryouta’ is reserved only for the bedroom,” Aomine grins.

Kagami chokes on his sparkling wine, instantly regretting his choice of topic. “Ugh, forget I even asked,” he coughs, fortunate that he hadn't taken a big gulp.  _I really need to stop drinking any sort of fluid whenever I'm around this guy,_ he thinks as he places his half-full glass on a nearby empty table.

“What does it even matter to you anyway? You jealous or something,  _Taiga-kun_?” jeers Aomine as he playfully slings an arm around Kagami’s shoulder.

Kagami shakes him off immediately and rolls his eyes.  “That’s rich, coming from the guy who can’t even look at pictures of his boyfriend without getting jealous of the photographer.”

"Say whatever you want, but when you see those pictures you'll eat those words faster than that damn cheese platter. Just remember, he's with  _me_ ," Aomine warns, poking Kagami in the chest with the handle of an appetizer fork.

"Think I'll stick to the appetizers, thanks," Kagami deadpans, pointing to his overflowing appetizer plate.

"You're damn right you will-- oh, hey, I see my old teammate from high school. Yo, Ryou!"  Aomine starts waving to a brunet standing next to an enlarged framed manga panel display several meters away; the apprehensive man starts shaking and bowing repeatedly as soon as he makes eye contact with Aomine.

"So do you traumatize  _everyone_  you know, or...?" Kagami comments as he pops a stuffed mushroom into his mouth.

"Fuck you, Ryou's always been like that. He's probably just nervous about his display.  Just hang out here for a while or something while I go tell him to calm the fuck down, okay? And at least  _pretend_ like you’re gonna leave some food for the rest of the guests, for crying out loud."

"Suit yourself," Kagami shrugs as Aomine stomps off in his friend's direction.  The other guy didn't really look like someone who'd be interested in basketball, but so far, none of the other people Aomine's introduced to Kagami really fit that description, either.

Instead of exploring the rest of the gallery on his own, Kagami decides to stay close to familiar territory, piling food onto his appetizer plate perfunctorily before devouring his gatherings an alarmingly fast rate, all while occasionally scanning the crowd of people to see if he can spot Kuroko or Kise.  He’s already cleared through a third of the entire appetizer table when he hears an unfamiliar voice address him.

“Excuse me, are you waiting for someone?” Kagami turns around to find a nervous-looking young man around Kuroko's height with shaggy brown hair, clutching a glass of soda and looking up at him.

“Sort of,” Kagami says after swallowing the last of his brie-topped crackers. “I’m here to see Tetsuya Kuroko’s stuff.”

“Oh, Kuroko! Yeah, I know where his area is,” says the new guy.  “I helped him hang some of his pieces earlier. I can walk you over there if you’d like?"

“Sure, thanks.” Kagami grabs one more tamagoyaki to top off the small mountain of food on his hors d'oeuvres plate and follows his new guide away from the bar.

"Were you invited by Kuroko?"

“Yeah… Taiga Kagami. Nice to meet you,” Kagami says as he bobs his head quickly in greeting.

“Kouki Furihata, likewise.  Kuroko and I are both photography majors, although he’s more of an all-rounder than I am,” Furihata admits sheepishly. “Kuroko has a real knack for street photography whereas I specialize in still-life, although lately I’ve been experimenting with conceptual photography…”

“Uh, right…” Kagami mumbles. He doesn’t understand what Furihata’s talking about, but Kagami figures it’s more polite to just stuff his cheeks with food, smile, and nod while Furihata chatters on about technique and differentiation from fine-arts photography and other topics that fly right over Kagami’s head.

A few twists and turns later, Furihata finally stops in front of a photograph of a small young girl on a swing, laughing and being pushed by a tall, bespectacled man with a gentle smile.  His argyle sweater vest and crisply ironed dress slacks are a stark contrast to the small ponytail at the top of his head, mirroring the one on the little girl's green hair exactly, right down to the matching frilly pink hair ties.

"Here we are.  This entire wall from here to the corner is all Kuroko's work," Furihata announces as Kagami leans in to inspect the picture.  Sure enough, the label affixed at the bottom displays  _Siblings - Tetsuya Kuroko_  in neat print.

"…Thanks," Kagami repeats as he quickly surveys the area.  There’s a group of mostly women crowding towards the end of the wall; Kagami figures that’s where Kuroko’s incriminating photos of Kise must be displayed.

"You know… now that I think about it, you look awfully familiar to me.  Have we met before?” He squints at Kagami, brow furrowed in concentration.

“I don’t think so, although I’m not that good at remembering faces,” Kagami answers apologetically.

“You aren’t another one of Kuroko’s old basketball teammates by any chance, are you?  They’re the only ones that show up whenever Kuroko has a showing.”

“This is the first time I’ve invited Kagami-kun to a showing, so perhaps Furihata-kun might have met him somewhere else,” a voice helpfully supplies from behind Furihata and Kagami.  The two simultaneously yelp and turn around to face Kuroko, Kagami’s empty appetizer plate clattering to the floor with a dull thud.

“K-kuroko! I-I didn’t notice you were here,” Furihata stutters as he clutches his chest.

“Seriously, are you a damn ninja or something? You’ve gotta stop appearing out of nowhere!” Kagami shouts.  A couple of bystanders nearby turn at Kagami’s outburst to glare at the three of them, but Kagami ignores them.

“I’ve been standing here the whole time,” Kuroko points out calmly as he looks directly at Kagami.  “Good evening, Kagami-kun.  I’m glad you were able to attend.”

“Ah, well, it’s not like I had anything better to do tonight…” Kagami trails off as he bends over to pick up his appetizer plate, avoiding Kuroko's gaze.

“In any case, Kagami-kun is Aomine-kun’s classmate. They attend the same university and play on the same team, so you might have seen him in Basketball Monthly or on J SPORTS—“

“I know where I’ve seen you before!” Furihata exclaims, nodding excitedly at Kagami. “You’re the redhead in Kuroko’s negatives!”

“Excuse me?” Kagami says, dumbfounded.

“Furihata-kun, that’s enough,” Kuroko swiftly interjects.  Kagami spots the faintest tinge of pink on Kuroko’s cheeks.

“He’s gonna see it anyway if he keeps going down this wall, you know,” Furihata says meaningfully to Kuroko before facing Kagami again. “You should ask Kuroko to take you to the darkroom on campus sometime if you want to see more of his work.  He’s got a lot more than just the stuff on display here, you know,” Furihata winks at Kagami.

“Um, okay…?” Kagami agrees, not really sure how to react.

Furihata laughs in response.  “I’ll leave you two alone, then.  I’m sure you two’ll have a lot to talk about,” he says as he smacks Kuroko on the back playfully.  “It was nice meeting you, Kagami!”

“Furihata-kun talks too much,” Kuroko mutters as Furihata walks away, the barest hint of irritation lacing the edge of his voice.  “I knew I shouldn’t have introduced him to Akashi-kun, he’s a bad influence.”

“Er, what exactly did he mean when he said I was in your negatives?”

“You’ll understand towards the end,” Kuroko says impassively, not looking at Kagami.  “More importantly, you’re here to see the pictures I took of Kise-kun, right?”

Kagami grins as he holds up his empty appetizer plate, twirling it with one hand. "Nah, I'm just here for the free food."

“As expected of someone that associates with Aomine-kun,” Kuroko retorts, and Kagami has to fight down the inexplicable urge to smooth away the crease in Kuroko’s brow with his thumb.

“Hey, give me some credit. I even wore a tie.” Kagami proudly tugs on his tie with his free hand. “I’m fancy now.”

“Yes, you clean up rather nicely,” Kuroko says.  Kagami isn’t sure if that’s meant to be a backhanded compliment or not, but Kuroko’s already headed towards the end of the wall before Kagami can ask.

Kagami leaves his used plate on an empty table nearby and trails after Kuroko, occasionally glancing at the photos along the way. All of them contain people –a man in a chef’s outfit with lavender frosting on his nose piping lavender roses onto a tiered cake, an elderly lady seated on a park bench and reading a novel, another young man in a yukata playing shogi by himself in a room overlooking an impressive Japanese-style garden at sunset.  He recognizes Momoi laughing and twirling in a field of sunflowers in one picture, Aomine smirking triumphantly as he holds up a large rhinoceros beetle in a separate picture, and even sees the tall green-haired guy from the first photo in another picture, grumpily handing balloons to several children while a shorter, sharp-eyed man points and laughs in the background.  “These are nice pictures,” he says.

“No need to strain yourself, Kagami-kun, insincere flattery will get you nowhere,” Kuroko flatly states, increasing his walking pace.

“I mean it though,” Kagami insists. “I like them.” Sure, they aren’t attracting the crowd that the pictures of Kise are, and he can’t critique them in the way Furihata or most of the other people here could, but even an amateur like Kagami can see that Kuroko’s shots are aesthetically pleasing and there was probably some skill involved in taking them.

‘Thank you,” Kuroko murmurs without turning around, and although Kagami notices the tips of Kuroko’s ears look red, he figures it’s just the lighting in the gallery.

Kuroko continues walking until he reaches the crowd that Kagami saw earlier; there are about ten people, most of them with their cell phones out and trying to snap a photo of the display.

“I really wish they wouldn’t do that," Kuroko sighs mildly. "Kise-kun's agency will send them all cease-and-desist letters if they post anything on the internet."

" _That's_  what you're worried about?" Kagami doesn’t know the first thing about modeling, but he imagines Kise’s agency wouldn’t be too happy about racy pictures of him floating around.

“The pictures will all be on display again when the fashion department does their spring collection show anyway, so it’s not a big deal.  After all, Kise-kun designed the clothes he’s modeling in those pictures himself.”

“Whatever you say,” Kagami says doubtfully as he heads towards the back of the crowd, thankful for both his height advantage and lack of interest in becoming an amateur paparazzo.  Kagami doesn’t have to crane his neck to take a gander at the pictures, but when he finally gets a good look at them he immediately understands why Aomine got so riled up.

Unlike the other pictures in Kuroko’s exhibit, which were individually matted and framed, the pictures containing Kise are clustered together in one large frame.  All of the pictures are shot in black and white and depict Kise posing in different types of underwear.  Some have him lounging, usually spread-eagle, on a couch; in others, he’s lying on a bed with his legs tangled in sheets.  Most of the shots show off Kise's toned abs and nicely sculpted arms; clearly, Kise hasn't been neglecting his workout regime.  Although each of the underwear Kise sports look like they’re made of different materials and cut in different styles, none of them leave much to the imagination in terms of Kise's male anatomy.

Kise’s smiling in most of the pictures, but it doesn’t look like the blindingly bright grin Kagami’s used to seeing when they hang out in person, nor does it resemble his generic model smile plastered on billboards and magazine covers all over Tokyo.  Kise's facial expression in all of the photos could only be described as sensual – smoldering eyes peering up into the camera from under thick long lashes, plump lips curved upward into a half-inviting, half-predatory leer, the kind of come-hither grin someone would wear right before getting the living daylights fucked out of them. 

“I… guess I get why Aomine’s upset now,” Kagami stammers as he clears his throat and glances at Kuroko instead of the photos.

"Really?" Kuroko cocks his head to the side questioningly, standing on tiptoe to reexamine his pictures over the mini-crowd.

“Yeah, if that were my boyfriend I’d definitely drink and cry about it.  That’s not the kind of look you give people unless you’re having sex with them,” says Kagami. 

“As I thought, it’s too late,” laments Kuroko as he steps away from Kagami. “Kagami-kun is officially infected with the Ahomine Virus. Please don’t come within a ten meter radius of me.”

“I’m not infected with anything! Don’t say it like I’ve got a contagious disease!” Kagami moves closer to Kuroko and tries to jab him in the stomach, but Kuroko successfully evades the attack.   They continue their attack and dodge dance for a short time, moving away from the crowd, before Kagami concedes defeat, walking alongside the other, decidedly tamer and less popular pictures of people and places on Kuroko’s wall. “Besides, Kise’s not my type,” Kagami sulkily adds.

“Because he’s a guy?”

Kagami stops and blinks at Kuroko’s candor. “I was thinking more along the lines of ‘I go for graceful, gentle, and modest’ but yeah, there’s that, too.”

“How unexpected,” Kuroko observes.  “I wouldn’t have thought those qualities were Kagami-kun’s preferences.”

“Nothing wrong with having a type,” Kagami mutters defensively.

“Not at all,” Kuroko agrees.  “If I were to say I had a ‘type’, I suppose it would be the kindhearted type.”

“Good to know,” Kagami shrugs without thinking, right before realizing how incredibly dumb he sounds.   _Why is that “good to know”?!  What the fuck am I saying?_ _Why is that “good to know”?!  What the fuck am I saying? It almost sounds like I'm flirting with Kuroko…but I’m totally not, right? **Right?!**_

In an attempt to stop sticking his foot any further in his mouth than he already has, Kagami turns to face the last picture of Kuroko's showcase.  Unfortunately, said mouth drops wide open once Kagami sees the photo, and any feeble comment he might have tried to make on the skill of the photography dies on his lips.

The focus of the picture is none other than Kagami himself.  His face is dead center in the middle of the photograph, left cheek pressed against the side of the Inter College trophy and grinning from ear to ear with tears in his eyes while surrounded by his teammates; he can even make out Aomine’s blurred arm slung around his shoulder.

“That’s… me,” Kagami says, taking a step towards the photo in disbelief. The caption below the photo has  _Victory – Tetsuya Kuroko_  printed in the same small font as the rest of Kuroko’s pictures.  “During last year’s Inter College. I got to hold the trophy first because I made the last shot.” He turns to look at Kuroko, who's studying him with an unreadable expression. "You took this?"

Kuroko gives a small bow of apology. “I apologize for not asking for permission to use it in my portfolio in advance, but it seemed like such a shame to not use one of my best shots.”

Something sticks in Kagami’s throat, and the tingly sensation he’d felt after he’d found out about the rarity of Kuroko inviting people to his showings comes back in full force. “No,” he manages after a moment, “no, it looks cool. Really cool.”

“I’m glad,” Kuroko says, sounding genuinely relieved. "It was fairly difficult to choose between this shot and one I had of you kissing the trophy, but that might have been a little too clichéd for the theme I was aiming for here."

"I don’t even remember doing that…" Kagami stares at the picture again, entranced. Kuroko’s snapshot of that instant brought back memories of the heat of the stadium lights and the roar of the spectators; it seemed entirely plausible that he’d quickly plant a smooch on the reward for his team’s blood, sweat, and tears, while high off of the adrenaline rush of that last-second win.  “I thought you and Kise thought Aomine just made me up, though. Didn’t you realize that was me in those pictures?”

"It didn’t occur to me that the person Aomine-kun kept on referring to as ‘that idiot tiger’ was actually you until we met. He doesn’t really talk about his school life,” Kuroko says as he stands next to Kagami.

“Yeah, well, not all of us are as talkative as Kise,” Kagami mumbles.

“Kise-kun was starting to get a little worried, but his work schedule usually keeps him from attending Aomine-kun’s games.  I wouldn't be surprised if Kise-kun's agency schedules all of his shoots that way on purpose.”

“Aomine said something along those lines earlier,” Kagami agrees.  “Sucks to date a model, I guess.”

“Anyway, I wanted to approach you after the game, but the other reporters got to you first. So I dropped a few hints about you to Kise-kun– mentioned your play style a bit, left a newspaper article about you lying around in the apartment, that sort of thing.”  Kuroko glances over to the area where Kise’s pictures are.  “He became curious enough to pester Aomine-kun about it, so eventually Aomine-kun gave in.  Kise-kun has Aomine-kun wrapped around his finger, after all.”

“Huh, I figured it was the other way around,” Kagami says.  Kise’s reduced his requests for pictures of Aomine in his “natural habitat” down to one email every week, which technically counts as an improvement from the daily email bombs Kagami used to receive when they first met each other.

“He might not look like it, but Aomine-kun's actually quite soft when it comes to Kise-kun.  I don’t think Kise-kun realizes that, though.”

“In other words, they’re both love-struck dumbasses,” Kagami concludes.

“Precisely,” agrees Kuroko.  “Both of them are very dear friends of mine, but being around the both of them for too long tends to induce nausea and vomiting from either the sugary-sweet sappiness or the ridiculously unsexy dirty talk.” Kuroko’s facial expression and tone of voice remain neutral, as if the two of them were simply discussing the weather.

Kagami can’t help but laugh. “You know, for a guy with such a poker face, you say some pretty interesting stuff,” he says, wiping a tear from his eye.

Kuroko blinks up at him.  “I think you’re the first person who’s ever called me interesting before.  Most people would refer to me as boring.”

“With a mouth like  _that_? Doubt it,” Kagami snickers.

"When it comes to my mouth, I'm a man of many talents," Kuroko states calmly, and suddenly Kagami finds it extremely difficult to focus on anywhere but the aforementioned mouth, corners curved slightly upwards in the tiniest of smiles.

Kagami clears his throat awkwardly and turns his head back towards the picture. “B-besides, I think your real ‘talents’ are photography and passing,” he says in a desperate effort to change the topic while admiring the picture again.  Kagami envisions Kuroko in uniform, exhausted and sweaty but joyously celebrating an Inter College conquest right alongside himself, Aomine, and the rest of their team.  The daydream feels so natural and right that it actually surprises Kagami, and he feels a little disappointed that it won’t happen in real life. “Too bad you quit playing competitive basketball though.  It would have been cool to have you as a teammate.” 

“I wonder about that,” Kuroko replies after a short pause, his monotone voice taking on a slight self-deprecating inflection.  “When we first met, I told you I quit basketball in middle school because I wasn’t suited for it, right?

“You did,” Kagami says as he turns back to eye Kuroko askance. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“That was one of the factors in my decision, but it wasn’t the true reason.” Kuroko looks down at his feet.   “I don’t suppose Aomine-kun has ever talked about his pre-college basketball career to Kagami-kun at all, has he,” says Kuroko, more to himself than to Kagami.

“Not really. You of all people should know how he is,” Kagami retorts.

Kuroko actually sighs at that, but doesn’t look back up at Kagami.  “To make a rather long story short, by the time we were in our third year of middle school, all of us were disillusioned with basketball.”  Kuroko looks directly at Kagami this time, his gaze piercing straight through Kagami.  “Have you ever grown to hate something you love, Kagami-kun? It’s an incredibly lonely feeling.”

Kagami doesn't know how to respond to that. He's never hated basketball – he doesn't even know if he could ever hate something as necessary and as natural to him as breathing. But he also remembers the nights when he had first returned to Japan, shooting hoops alone on the empty street court near his apartment with Himuro's furious words ringing in his ears and his ring weighing heavy against his chest, and wonders if that kind of loneliness was maybe anything like what Kuroko had felt too, so he stays silent.

“We’d made a promise with our team captain to attend different high schools, but shortly after I quit the team I decided to follow Aomine-kun to Touou Academy instead,” Kuroko continues. “I considered joining the basketball team again in high school, but it just wasn’t the same.  Even Aomine-kun, who was at Touou because of a sports recommendation, was so demotivated that he never went to practice.”

“Wouldn’t he have been kicked off the team if he skipped?”  The Aomine that Kagami knows would stroll in late while bitching and moaning about having to wake up, but usually shut up once practice actually started.  If anything, Aomine’s attendance record for anything concerning basketball was likely second only to Kagami’s—barring any hangovers from late-night drunken crying sessions, of course.

“The Touou coach and the captain at the time didn't mind as long as he showed up to games and won them,” Kuroko explains.

“I’m surprised Momoi didn’t try to beat some sense into him.”  _Or you, for that matter,_  Kagami almost adds, but somehow the image of Momoi successfully kicking Aomine’s ass seemed more plausible to him than Kuroko doing so.

“She tried her best, but I think we were both pretty defeated at that point,” says Kuroko, biting his lower lip and averting his gaze.

“And then?” Kagami asks hastily.  Kuroko might be hard to read most of the time, but clearly he doesn’t enjoy recalling what must have been a painful time for him, so the faster Kagami can get him to gloss over the details, the better.  “What changed?”

“Kise-kun's team beat Touou in a surprise upset during our freshman year Winter Cup semi-finals.  They'd already lost to Touou in the Inter High so no one was expecting Kaijou to win, but Kise-kun and Kaijou’s captain pulled off a rebound at the very last second.” Kagami doesn’t like the forced neutrality in Kuroko’s expression, but at least Kuroko is looking at Kagami now.  “That game reawakened something in Aomine-kun, and he started enjoying basketball again.  Aomine-kun confessed to Kise-kun after the Winter Cup of our senior year, and they've been together ever since.”

“What about you?”

“What do you mean?”  Kuroko tilts his head to one side slightly in puzzlement, as if the possibility that someone would ask about him after hearing the story of his past were nonexistent.

“I mean, once you saw Aomine and Kise playing each other, didn't you want to play again too?” Kagami’s no expert on storytelling, but he can more or less predict the outcome of the tale Kuroko’s just spun – a happy ending for Aomine and Kise.  That’s all well and good, but Kagami’s more concerned about the narrator, not the protagonists.

“A little,” Kuroko admits. “But it wasn't like I vowed to never touch a basketball again – I still played street ball in high school, and once Aomine-kun and Kise-kun figured out their whole situation we'd play together often.”

“Doesn’t seem like a fair matchup,” Kagami smirks mirthlessly.  A small part of him imagines just how many extra street ball games he could have played with Kuroko if they’d known each other in high school, and he wonders just how different things could have turned out if the two of them had met sooner.

“One of my childhood friends suggested I take up photography as a hobby around that time, so I was too busy exploring that option to sit around pitying myself,” Kuroko retorts, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way. Your friend was right-- you take really nice pictures. It wasn't a waste of effort or anything like that." Kagami holds up his hands placatingly _. It'd probably be weird if I told him I wish we'd met in high school or something._ "Besides, who says you can't do both?" Kagami adds, grinning at Kuroko.

Kuroko stands stick-straight and completely still for a moment, and then takes a deep breath, cheeks dusted with a faint rose color.  “I'm sure you hear this very often, but you have a very captivating play style, Kagami-kun.”

"I–, well–, that's–" sputters Kagami, feeling his own cheeks turn hot. Somehow, whenever Kuroko compliments him, it feels intimate, like he's being let in on a secret between just the two of them. He doesn't hate it (in fact, he kind of likes it a lot), but it'll definitely be bad for his heart rate if Kuroko keeps this up.

“Also, I'm quite fond of your smile.”

“My _what_?”

“When you play basketball, you smile like you really love it.” Kuroko dimples at Kagami affectionately, and ridiculous phrases like “a small flower bud slowly blossoming amidst the winter snow” and “the reflection of the full moon, gradually emerging from behind wisps of spring clouds, on a secluded garden pond at midnight” inexplicably pop up in Kagami’s mind.

“I-it's not 'like' I really love it, it's 'because' I love it,” Kagami stutters as he looks away again, pretty sure his entire face, not just his eyes and hair, matches the color of his shirt by now. “You really overthink this kind of stuff,” he says. "Of course I'd be smiling in this picture. We just won!"

"That's fine, too. After all, is it really a victory if no one's happy about it?"

Kagami spins his head back to face Kuroko so quickly he's almost sure he'll get whiplash.  Kuroko’s staring straight at him again ( _he isn’t smiling anymore though_ , Kagami notes with disappointment) with such vehemence that Kagami’s rendered speechless.  It’s the same fire he saw in Kuroko’s eyes that day on the street court, only even more intense, deep azure blazing with enough severity to spark Kagami's own fighting spirit.  If Kagami thought finding out Kuroko took a picture of him during the Winter Cup felt like waiting for tournament matches to be announced, then Kuroko looking at him like _this_  sends the same shiver down his spine he gets right before tip-off during the championship. 

“It’s definitely better to be happy when you win,” Kagami concurs at last. A small part of him feels almost like Kuroko’s challenging him, and while Kagami’s always been shit at tests, his instinct has never failed him when it came to basketball.

It must have been the answer Kuroko was looking for, since Kuroko blinks twice at his response, and the fire disappears, replaced with an unmistakable glimmer of happiness.  “All things considered, you make a nice subject,” he remarks with a relaxed, content smile that leaves Kagami more than a little punch-drunk.   “I look forward to taking more pictures of Kagami-kun in the future.”

“S-sure,” Kagami blurts out, and although he’s fairly confident in his alcohol tolerance, he chooses to blame it on the half-glass of wine rather than the sudden overwhelming desire to do anything possible to keep on seeing Kuroko’s smile when he enthusiastically adds, “You can take pictures of me whenever you want!”

Kuroko leans forward a little bit, just close enough for Kagami to notice things like how wide Kuroko’s eyes were open, or how Kuroko’s lashes were longer than he’d expected. “I’ll hold you to that,” Kuroko says, eyebrows slightly raised and voice a touch huskier than before.

Kagami can only nod back dazedly in agreement, and it’s when Kuroko smiles back at him, a soft, playful, knowing half-smirk, that Kagami finally realizes what’s been causing those fluttery jolts in his chest all night:

_He’s totally into me._

 

* * *

  

Kise spots Aomine roaming the gallery floor with his trademark scowl, so he excuses himself from the conversation he’d just been having with some of his classmates before Aomine scares off some of the visitors.

“Aominecchi!” He latches onto Aomine’s arm as soon as he catches up to Aomine.  If anyone starts asking questions his agency will just write it off as Kise being his usual touchy-feely self, but Kise always clings a little bit tighter and inches in a little bit closer when it’s Aomine.  “You came!”

“Shut up, cheater,” grumbles Aomine, but he doesn’t push Kise away.

“So heartless!” Kise clutches a hand to his chest. “I only have eyes for you, Aominecchi!”

"I bet you say that to all the blue-haired basketball players you meet,” says Aomine, attempting to glare menacingly at Kise and failing miserably.

“It’s the truth! Kurokocchi told me to pretend he was  _you_  when we shot those pictures, and I guess I got a little carried away,” Kise says as he taps himself against the side of his head and sticks his tongue out playfully. "He even printed out a picture of you and wore it like a mask to help set the mood!"

“Remind me to punch Tetsu in the face when I see him," Aomine growls, but there's no heat in his words.  He hastily scans the area to make sure no one’s staring before quickly dropping a kiss on Kise’s cheek.

Kise beams at Aomine.  “I will, but you know that’ll only earn you an Ignite Pass right in the gut if you try.”

Aomine flicks him in the forehead in response.  “You’re supposed to be on  _my_  side, not Tetsu’s side! Where is that homewrecker anyway? I haven’t seen him all night.”

“Kurokocchi’s not a homewrecker,” Kise pouts as he rubs the offended spot on his forehead. “I helped him set up his exhibit a while ago but I lost track of him.  Maybe he’s with Kagamicchi? You guys came in together, right?”

“Yeah, but we ran into Ryou while we were at the bar.  I told Bakagami to wait for me while I calmed Ryou down, but when I came back he was gone,” Aomine explains.  “I figured he’s at Tetsu’s exhibit since there were still some leftovers at the appetizer table, so that’s where I was heading.”

“I’ll lead the way, then!” says Kise as he tugs Aomine in the direction of Kuroko’s display.  The two of them navigate through the gallery speedily, slowing down as soon as Kise spots a familiar maroon head standing in front of one of the photos on display.  “I found Kagamicchi!”

“Couldn’t you have picked just  _one_  picture to put on display instead of all of them?” Aomine complains distractedly as he glares in the opposite direction, towards the group of people clustered around the pictures of Kise.

“Aominecchi, your jealous side is super-cute and super-annoying at the exact same time,” Kise replies, rolling his eyes.  He speeds up and pulls Aomine along, but stops abruptly once he recognizes the photo that Kagami is looking at—and the person standing next to Kagami.

The sudden halt makes Aomine bump into Kise.  “What happened? Why’d you stop?”

Kise crosses one arm to hold his elbow and rests his chin on his free hand, pausing to think for a second before turning to fully face Aomine.  “Kagamicchi’s single, right?”

“I think so… he had a girlfriend during, like, the first two months of sophomore year or something but he hasn’t mentioned anyone since.” Aomine looks at Kise questioningly.  “Wait… you’re not interested in him, are you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kise laughs as he pats Aomine on the shoulder comfortingly, “I’m asking for Kurokocchi’s sake.”

“Tetsu? Why would he be interested in  ** _that_**?” Aomine gestures wildly at Kagami’s back as if to emphasize his point.

“Kagamicchi’s totally Kurokocchi’s type.”

“What makes you so sure about that?” Aomine asks dubiously.

“I’m Kurokocchi’s roommate, remember? I’m quite familiar with Kurokocchi’s taste in men,” Kise says smugly.  Aomine would probably never find out (at least, not if Kuroko had anything to say about it), but Kuroko’s first crush had been none other than Aomine himself.  Part of the reason Kuroko and Kise got along so well was because Kise understood exactly what it was like to have unrequited feelings for someone and grow out of them eventually – after all, if anyone were to ask Kise about his own first love, he’d name Kuroko without any hesitation.

“Besides, Kagamicchi has a lot going for him,” Kise continues, holding out one hand to count off each of Kagami’s positives. “He’s kind, he’s surprisingly patient when he wants to be, he can cook almost as well as he can play basketball–”

“How do you know how well he can cook?!”

“So you admit he’s good at basketball?” Kise counters triumphantly.

 **“** _ **Fuck no!**_ But even if Kuroko was interested,” Aomine says, refusing to let Kise distract him from the main topic, “Kagami’s straight.”

“That’s never stopped Kurokocchi before.  If anything, I’d say he enjoys the challenge,” Kise winks at Aomine before looking straight ahead at Kuroko and Kagami.  The two of them are standing almost shoulder to shoulder, Kagami laughing and talking animatedly while Kuroko shows a small smile on his face.  “When Kurokocchi gets serious, Kagamicchi won’t even know what hit him.”

“Please don’t say any more than that, that’s my best friend hitting on my teammate you’re talking about,” Aomine grimaces and clutches his stomach in disgust.

Kise laughs again and leans toward Aomine to peck him on the cheek reassuringly, tabloids be damned. “And  _you’re_  my boyfriend, so that’s that.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I may play around with this AU a little more if there's interest :)


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